


The Proper Distance

by SpiralSpace



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Also Aimless Renegade is alive because I said so, Bureaucracy, Butchered Chess Terminology, Chess Eroticism, Democracy, Earth C (Homestuck), I have no idea what this should be rated, I'm just going to tag it as, Look I'll be honest, M/M, Wayward Vagabond/Aimless Renegade/Barack Obama (Implied)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 19:15:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18666673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiralSpace/pseuds/SpiralSpace
Summary: On an Earth C where things still seem to be going just peachy, two old Carapacian comrades experience misgivings along with an unexpected visitor.





	The Proper Distance

The mayor of Can Town banged his fist, gently but firmly, on the hard wooden surface of the desk in front of him. [And I’m telling you, it’s not possible! The planning committee has already voted.]

[It’s not that we -should- change it, we -must- decrease the interval between streetlights from every 50 metres to every 25 metres!] The chief of police, clad in an officer’s uniform of a dapper, human styling, looked perhaps even finer than he had years ago, when the two had first met on a doomed, deserted planet. Certainly he cut a more dignified figure when not mummified by caution tape.

[But the Dersian neighborhoods are already complaining that the current streetlights are too bright!] WV said exasperatedly.

[This is a matter of public safety!] AR shot back. [It’s already clear that my Prospitian officers don’t have strong enough dark vision to do their patrols at night. And Prospitian drivers aren’t much better…]

[If that’s true, I still don’t know why you’re talking to me about it for.]

[You know they wouldn’t go against you if you pushed the issue. This is urgent!]

[What would be the point of having a planning committee if I was going to overrule them every other week? Surely you could have at least tried to convince them first?] The mayor paced restlessly. He looked out at the street outside his office. The Can Town library, just down the road. The newspaper stand next to it. The pumpkin patch where their next subdivision was planned to be. He closed his blinds. The people would worry if the mayor and the chief of police were seen squabbling openly. Even if the reason was something so minor, perhaps even ultimately irrelevant, as street lights. He felt somebody tug gently at the back of his mayoral cowl. [That’s not going to change my mind,] WV said.

[Oh, I know.]

[Fine, then.]

\- - - - -

WV moaned. [How did I forget so entirely about your strong concrete game?]

AR saw WV’s shiver as he continued shuffling his pieces into more secure homes. [You think that’s something, just wait. In a few seconds I’m going to make that Sicilian defense open up like it’s a Denny’s and I just rolled up at 3 AM with all the boys and a groupon.]

[Absolutely repulsive.] The former vagabond tried to suppress a smirk but it still showed at the corners of his mouth. [If that’s how you’re going to be, then why wait at all? My pawn structure’s triple-stacked and there’s no queen side support. Why don’t you just take that big old rook of yours and finish this?]

AR grunted, and slowly shoved his rook all the way up the C-file. He heard air hiss between WV’s gritted teeth. [Checkmate,] he said. WV’s whole body relaxed at once, and he also slumped somewhat against the wall. 

When WV was feeling like he could focus again, he looked at his partner. [Why in the world did you decide to go with Denny’s?] he asked.

AR shrugged. [It was what came to me in the moment. Have you ever been?]

[To the one that opened downtown? I have. Supporting local businesses is only courteous when you wear the sash. Normally it’s one of the more enjoyable responsibilities. Human food normally isn’t great, but it really was uniquely awful. It’s like they’re just throwing random ingredients together.]

[There ought to be a law.] AR said wryly.

[There should probably to be a law against a lot of things. Us, for example…]

[Well, you know us, always secretly colluding.]

[We have a… reliably confrontational work relationship. But that doesn’t mean it’s good practice for the mayor and the chief of police to be in bed together. And what about down the road when two other bozos are the mayor and the police chief?]

[If that’s how you feel, then maybe you should write one? I know you love writing ordinances. And I’m sure I could find some creative ways to bring justice to anyone who broke it.]

WV frowned. [Sigh… what’s the point.]

That apathy got his boyfriend’s attention, and his concern. [Is something wrong? Was it because I-]

[No, it’s nothing you did. It was amazing, as always. I’ve just been thinking about some stuff lately.]

[Like?]

[Like, eternal valour to the brave and radiant heroes, but-]

[Eternal valour to the brave and radiant heroes,] AR repeated, by rote.

[-but this world isn’t for us, is it? It’s for them. Nothing we do matters if they decide something different is going to happen, and they don’t even care about us. And I’m not just saying that because they’ve apparently decided to just leave until it looks like the kind of world they want.] WV rubbed his forehead. [I journeyed alongside them for years, but sometime before they go, ask them if they even remember my name! Or don’t, it doesn’t matter. I just… sometimes I feel like maybe we traded two distant, detached tyrants for twelve of the same. And I haven’t felt guilty about thinking it for a while now. These days I just wonder, is any of what we built here going to be remembered in the future? Will it matter, even a little, that the street lights were or were not placed the way the people wanted them to be? Or is this idea of pawns living together, for our own sake, under our own rule, just going to be swept aside some day because it’s not what they envisioned?]

He felt AR’s warm, sturdy arms wrap him from behind, in a truly tender embrace.

[Sometimes it just all seems so fragile.]

“The first great democracies,” President Obama commented, the same moment he stepped off of the transportalizer pad hidden behind WV’s desk, “were intended to subvert the rule that the strong had historically held over the weak, and put an end to tyranny. And yet the great irony of democracy is that nothing about its inherent structure ensures such a thing. No, it’s not the constitution, or any of the textual laws of a democracy that give it this potential. All of the good a democracy does stems from the democratic spirit that was forged at its birth; a burning conviction that a government should serve ALL of its people, coupled with the knowledge that by the motions of the people such a thing can be made to be. And therefore, a democracy will only continue to be worthy so long as that spirit is kept alive, by the actions of those so inclined and so empowered who live within it.”

WV and AR moved to re-clothe, though not hurriedly. The experienced statesman had seen much more in the past, after all. [I’m afraid your timing was a bit off today, Mr. Obama.] AR said. [It'll be a while before I’m up for another round.]

Obama chuckled. “No, I’m afraid it’s business rather than pleasure that brings me here today.”

[Business?] WV asked, shuffling his mayoral cowl and sash back into place.

“Yes, you see, your predictions for the Carapacian people are wholly correct. Their course will, in time, waver and shift in ways that the mayor of Can Town could neither have predicted nor prevented, even before this planet’s heroes make their return.”

WV nodded solemnly.

“But I have a proposition, one that would allow you to touch that future, and potentially bring your vision to a new home within it. You see, many, many years from now, even further into the future than that, those same heroes will again abandon this world, leaving not just the kingdoms but the very notion of democracy in peril. When that day comes, it will need somebody. Somebody to speak up on behalf of the quiet voices. Somebody to protect those singular stories against the ones who would try to silence them, not just on behalf of the Carapacian nation but for all people. Somebody like you two. Would you answer such a call?”

[Of course!] AR said. [Just give us a few minutes to make some arrangements.]

“The balls are in motion,” Obama replied. “I’ve already arranged suitable ‘accidents’ for both of you, so that nobody will be suspicious of your disappearance. But you need to go now.”

[In that case, Mr. Obama, it’s been an honour.] WV said, as he and AR stepped onto the transportalizer pad, arm in arm.

**Author's Note:**

> Just... bear with me on this one. Homestuck was my first fandom, WV/AR was my first ship, and I got the initial inklings of this idea back then, long before the thought of an actual Can Town was a twinkle in Hussie's eye. But I wasn't even writing fanfic at that point, and the pieces never quite came together right anyway.
> 
> Except now, with the unexpected introduction of Barack Obama, and the end of the comic, it finally has :, ) . So, technically this magnum opus was eight years in the making.


End file.
